Gardeners, pamper your love apples and get your taste buds in shape, because the Taste of Tomato is returning to Boulder for its second year. Sponsored by Harlequin's Gardens and Colorado State University Extension in Boulder County, the Taste of Tomato is an opportunity to sample the love apple in its many forms sorted according to stripes, color, shape and size.

The event on Aug. 25 allows gardeners to bring their tomatoes for others to try and sample the products others are growing. Gardeners are asked to bring three of more medium to large tomatoes or 10 cherry tomatoes of one variety as an entry fee. Tomatoes must be home-grown. Alternatively, participants can pay $3. Last year, more than 200 tomato enthusiasts gathered to taste 72 varieties and a panel of food experts voted on the tastiest of the lot. This year, organizers plan to let the public decide which tomatoes are must-haves for next year's garden.

Advertisement

But first we need a little cooperation from Mother Nature, whose extended hot flash is taking its toll on the garden. To set fruit, tomatoes are a bit fussy; daytime temperatures higher than 85 degrees combined with nighttime temperatures above 70 makes them drop their blossoms. With this year's heat, gardeners are reporting sluggish gardens and few tomatoes sized up and ripened. They'll bounce back once the weather cools, but by then we might be battling frosty nights.

In my garden, even the grafted tomato is reluctant to set fruit, although the plant is living up to its billing as a tough tomato able to shrug off many problems. At my place, that means it has stoically endured being ignored while I traveled, stressed by drought, mulched late, and gassed with herbicide-laced straw. As tomatoes around it are swooning in princess-like protest, it grows larger, bulking up stems like it's tapped into a pipeline of nitrogen. If it were a person I'm sure it would be muttering about divas while flexing its brawny biceps and pectoral muscles.

If the heat isn't enough to flatten your plants, here's a list of troubles that might crop up in your tomatoes and a few simple steps to help control them.

Cause: Early blight is a fungus spread by water, insects, and gardeners.

Cure: Pick off diseased leaves, and keep the ground free of debris. Spray healthy leaves with potassium bicarbonate or dust with sulfur to shield them from infection. Give plants room to grow without crowding them and use drip irrigation to prevent splashing water.

What: Black, sunken, rotten spots on the bottom of fruit.

Cause: Blossom end rot, caused by poor uptake of calcium. Though calcium is plentiful in our soil, irregular watering and excessive heat prevent the plant from using it.

Cure: Use a timer to automatically turn on and off the irrigation, and mulch plants to keep the soil from drying out too rapidly.

What: Leaf spirals, cupping or distortion.

Cause: Tomatoes are sensitive to herbicides. Many gardeners don't spray their food plants; instead, the damage is from drift. Drift can occur from applying weed killer on windy days.

Cure: Limit applications of weed killer to cool times of the day when wind is calm.

Join us at the Taste of Tomato, where you can learn about these and other tips for gardening with tomatoes.

Lightning has 5A state title aspirations once againIt was the only home plate the Legacy varsity softball field had ever known, and there it was last Saturday, in its tattered state, dug out of the playing surface and relegated to a lonely, unused existence. Full Story

The Boulder alt-country band gives its EPs names such as Death and Resurrection, and its songs bear the mark of hard truths and sin. But the punk energy behind the playing, and the sense that it's all in good fun, make it OK to dance to a song like "Death." Full Story